Curita "Curing" Villar, mother of presidentiable Manny Villar, opened her Las Piñas home to the media yesterday, April 26, to respond to the reports that debunk her son's claim that he was poor, reports GMANews.tv.

Daughters Odette, Gloria, and Vicky were quick to clarify that the interview, which was announced by Villar's staff late last Saturday, was not a publicity stunt. Sen. Villar's younger sister, Gloria, also added that unlike Sen. Noynoy Aquino, they "weren't using their mother for politics."

GMANews.tv's report: "Villars were not poor."

However, a report by GMANews.tv's Howie Severino and Pia Faustino surmised that the Villars were actually a middle-class, double income family.

Their research showed that Manuel Villar Sr., an official in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources in 1961, used to earn P5,376 a year or about P22 a day. Although the said amount seems minute today, the minimum wage in the early '60s was only P4 per day and the reported average yearly income by an individual was P1,105.

In addition to Villar Sr.'s earnings, Nanay Curing, who was a fish vendor at the Divisoria market back then, reportedly took home around P80 to P600 a day.

"The Villars had double income. The father was a regular wage earner. They eventually owned a piece of land. They were in the formal sector. They could have been in the upper 10 percent. There was no way they were poor in Tondo," Dr. Mary Racelis, an urban anthropologist who did poverty studies in Tondo in the 1960s, told GMANews.tv.

ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW

Racelis also added, "Housing is a very strong indicator of poverty. (The Villars) were [tenants] of a home made of strong materials. That does not make them poor. The really poor in Tondo lived in ramshackle homes of nipa and straw."